The ongoing investigation of Sherlock Holmes, reported from the Peoria, Illinois outpost of Baker Street's dirtiest half a dozen.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Sherlock Holmes.

Okay, we've seen our share of almost-Sherlocks on television lately, but tonight's entry into the TV detective sweepstakes is freaking me out a little bit. He's just a little too much like Sherlock Holmes.

"What?" you ask, "How could any TV detective being like Sherlock be a bad thing?"

Well, what if our latest heir to the amateur detective throne was, himself, a bad thing.

A very bad thing.

As in Lucifer bad thing. As in formerly-of-Hell and making-deals-for-souls Lucifer.

But . . .

British accent, good at getting to people's hidden truths, amusing lack of adherence to social norms. Remind you of anyone we like a whole lot?

Lucifer on Fox is the latest in the terrific string of comic-book-spawned movies we've had lately, with the Devil leaving Hell to solve crime in California. Sure, he's not Sherlock Holmes, but think about it.

Who has a vaster knowledge of criminal history than Sherlock Holmes? This guy.

Who has a brother (or heavenly host of same) who works for the current "government"? This guy.

Who administers his own justice outside the courts on occasion? Okay, well, a lot of occasions . . .

This guy.

And this new TV Lucifer immediately finds a Watson to whom he's not sure exactly why he bonds with, but who helps with his humanity all the same. I'm certain this show will find its fans among the Sherlockian contingent of TV viewers, just as House, Monk, Psych, The Mentalist, etc., etc., etc.

But doesn't it bother you just a teensy bit that our hero, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, bears a little bit of a resemblance to . . . wait a minute, what was it Holmes said in The Hound of the Baskervilles?

"In my modest way, I have combated evil, but to take on the Father of Evil himself would, perhaps, be too ambitious a task."

6 comments:

Oh, is there more Lucifer now? I watched a pilot a while ago which I really liked, but heared the show'd been axed at once because the bible belt contingent protested the very idea or something like that. Have to go looking for more.